Mediterranean Inspired Kidney Bean Salad

Good news, my kitchen is almost done! Everything is in working order except for the disposal, oven and stove! After absent-mindedly grocery shopping to restock the kitchen, I came home and decided to make one of my favorite go-to dishes, kidney bean salad. When I was at the store, I just bought a few basics and veggies to hold me over until my kitchen was complete. I normally prefer red onion in this dish, but all I bought was yellow, so I substituted. This salad is delicious and makes a great lunch. I love the lemon and parsley, it always reminds me of tabouli.

Ingredients

3 cans of kidney beans
1 red bell pepper - diced
1 yellow bell pepper - diced
1/2 red onion - diced
1 small bunch of parsley - chopped

2 lemons - juiced

1 tbs olive oil

salt to taste

1. Start off with draining and rinsing the kidney beans, then toss them in a bowl or tupperware.

2. Mix in your diced bell peppers, onion, and parsley. 

3. Drizzle the olive oil and mix well.

4. Add desired amount of lemon. I love lemon so I will use two or more lemons.

5. Salt to taste.

This recipe is extremely easy and very hard to mess up. You can always add and subtract ingredients, its all up to your preference. When I am making a big batch for a party I will add orange and green bell peppers to make it really colorful. It really doesn't matter what color bell peppers you use. I also add fresh minced garlic sometimes.

Kidney bean salad + tzatziki + crackers + hummus + carrots = my typical lunch

Nutritional Information:
This recipe has approximately 10 servings (the picture above is a little more than half of a serving)
Per serving (approximately 120 grams)
128 calories
1.4 grams of fat
3 grams of protein

Confessions

I have a confession to make. I did not choose the best time to start a food blog because, I have no kitchen, it kills me. The good news is that I may have a kitchen by the end of the day! I highly doubt everything will be in working order, but I will have my appliances! I am hoping for everything to be finished by next week. Normally, not being able to cook would kill me, I like home cooked meals, I take leftovers to lunch everyday. It is not often that I eat a lot of processed food, and being without a kitchen has left me with no choice. It has been probably 3-4 months with no kitchen. As I mentioned, I am not a big processed food fan, but I do make exceptions, even when I do have a kitchen.

One of my favorite go to prepared meals is Amy's. Amy's is a family owned business and all of their meals are vegetarian made with mostly (95%) organic ingredients. If you read their ingredient label practically everything is organic. They are not USDA Organic certified but they are certified organic by Quality Assurance International.

 Cheese Tamale Verde

The calorie & fat count on this is high compared to their other products, but it is delicious and compared to other options, I am doing great.

Chili & Cornbread

I also love their Chil & Cornbread meal. I was not to crazy about trying this one, but I was pleasantly surprised. It is really good. One thing that I miss eating since cutting out meat is chili and this hit the spot. The cornbread is slightly sweet and the chili has a great flavor.



Amy's also makes a variety of other very delicious meals, soups and snacks. You should really check them out: Amy's 

Hopefully, I will have a kitchen soon so that I can post my own delicious meals, but I can tell you that I will still eat Amy's when I just don't feel like cooking.